Restless
by Mathais
Summary: In the aftermath, instincts are hard to forget, and the feeling of being useful even harder still. Contains moderate Odd/Ulrich.


Story Title: Restless

Author: Mathais

Rating: T

Fandom: Code Lyoko

Warnings: Slash, Spoilers

Pairings: Odd/Ulrich

Summary: In the aftermath, instincts are hard to forget, and the feeling of being useful even harder still.

Disclaimer: I don't not own Code Lyoko and its various characters and locations.

Notes: This is in the same universe as _Moment of Tranquility_ and _Silent Watcher_, though reading those two is optional but appreciated. All you really need to know is that Odd and Ulrich are together. This has nothing to do with Code Lyoko Evolution and has been languishing on my computer for at least a year before I polished and finished it.

**OoOoO**

Ulrich idly wondered why he got up this morning as he stared at his toast without really looking at it. Reaching out for his food, he ripped one corner off and plucked it in his mouth. It wasn't bad toast; he'd had worse, but...

"Oi, Ulrich, you all right?" Odd plopped down on the table, a healthy amount of food on his plate and a croissant already in hand. About to take a bite of it, he turned and really looked at his roommate and boyfriend.

And then he set down his food.

Ulrich knew how much this meant for Odd to pause in his food, for even a moment. He wasn't sure where it all went, but it was a quirk he'd come to accept. The fact that he was worried enough to even do so meant that whatever Ulrich was feeling was obvious on his face.

So he tried to muster a smile and nod for appearances' sake, but Odd wasn't buying it.

Neither of them was open in their relationship in public, so Odd didn't do what he'd do behind closed doors. That didn't stop him from nudging Ulrich in the side and asking, "Really?"

With just the two of them, with Aelita still waiting for Jeremie and Yumi on her way, Ulrich allowed himself to sigh. Part of him just wanted to wrap an arm around Odd and pull him close and just breathe, and another part of him just wanted to push him away and wallow in his own rut. But this was Odd, and if there was nothing else Ulrich had learned from being Odd's boyfriend, it was that Odd was annoying persistent and absolutely more so now that he'd pretty much settled down for the long haul with him.

"I'm just," Ulrich paused as he struggled to find the words. "I'm. I can't concentrate." Even the admission curled in his gut, and he hated, hated, hated that helpless feeling, but Ulrich forced it out.

Odd was still looking at him, tapping thoughtfully at his carton of milk. Finally lowering his drink completely, Odd said, "Is it because of Lyoko? How it's over now?"

A portion of Ulrich wanted to deny it, wanted to say, no, Ulrich really wasn't bothered by the end of it all, but it'd be a lie.

He missed it. He missed it all.

But he wouldn't admit it, because when they shut down the supercomputer, they agreed to close that chapter of their lives for good. Everyone else seemed like they were doing fine and moving on, even William, so who was Ulrich to drag them down?

So Ulrich just shrugged, and Odd dropped the issue when Aelita and Jeremie came in, arguing about Aelita's latest project.

But Ulrich knew that Odd hadn't completely let go of it, if the side glances Odd was giving him meant anything.

**OoOoO**

So, Ulrich hadn't been sleeping properly lately. Given that Odd's snores could wake the dead, he knew that he was pretty much sleeping fine, and he could close his eyes and pretend to be asleep if needed. Eventually, he'd drift off to sleep for a couple of hours or so before he was forced awake again, whether due to memories or the fact that he had to move, and he'd be tired all day.

But he couldn't help it. Nothing he did let him sleep, and the last time he'd tried running around the track, Jim had caught him and kicked him out.

When he did manage to sleep though, it was always lightly. And so when he heard a loud thump, his eyes snapped open just in time to roll away from a foot aiming for his stomach. Ulrich launched himself off of the bed just as the other foot rose and came down as well. Automatically snapping into a fighting stance, Ulrich caught sight of who was attacking him, and he was struck dumb.

"Odd, what?" Ulrich tried to get out, but Odd didn't respond, only jumped off the bed with a diving punch. Ulrich blocked and winced as the impact sent pain racing up his arms.

"Odd, what is this?" Ulrich tried again.

Odd continued to ignore his attempts to answer, instead jabbing forward with quick punches that Ulrich could barely block. For an insane moment, Ulrich wondered if something bad had happened, or if this was even Odd. But XANA was done with, right? Except Odd wasn't wearing the fang earring that he'd gotten him two Christmases ago, and it wasn't even that late—Odd wouldn't have been asleep for another hour or two.

Ulrich twisted around Odd's strikes and maneuvered for his phone, but Odd cut him off with astonishing speed. Odd had almost always been quick and limber, but he'd never displayed this sort of talent before.

Quickly becoming cornered in their small room, Ulrich broke for the door. A quick twist of the hand let him unlock it as he blocked a punch with the other, and then he was racing down the hallways, Odd hot on his heels.

Ulrich was a soccer player and a martial artist; he prided himself on his speed. But Odd was quick, almost as quick as he was, but if he was running, then Odd couldn't—

And then Ulrich winced when a rock hit him on the shoulder. The pain made him run all the faster, now panicked. He'd forgotten that Odd had amazing aim even outside of Lyoko.

Now being pelted with unnervingly accurate rocks, Ulrich ran faster than he ever had before, save for a Super Sprint. Where could he go? How could he dodge Odd? If this was a XANA attack and Odd was under some undue influence, he was screwed without his cell phone. Unless the others were already working at the factory... If nothing else, Ulrich could lose Odd in the factory's labyrinthine corridors and possibly remove the need for a return to the past.

Plan set, Ulrich raced out of the dormitory and headed through the familiar path to the factory's sewer access, body remembering how often he'd gone through these same motions. Only, when he finally reached it, it was to a flash of steel at his throat, which he barely ducked beneath.

Rolling across the manhole cover, Ulrich felt his hands come across what felt like two lengths of wood, and he snatched them up. Swiping his new weapons in both high and low arcs, he blocked the next attacks from what he now recognized as metal fans, which identified his new assailant as Yumi. But he didn't have time to think as Yumi spun into a never-ending rush of attacks, forcing Ulrich to use every bit of his skill and no small amount of luck to block the whirlwind of metal. When Yumi finally relented, Ulrich's arms were beginning to waver and sweat was getting into his eyes.

He also felt better than he had in a while.

With adrenaline pumping through his body, everything felt brighter, sharper. The cool wind on his arms, the rustle of grass beneath his feet—Ulrich had missed this feeling. A sharp grin blossomed across his face, and he settled into a ready stance.

Except Yumi wasn't after him anymore. She was too busy fending off a hailstorm of rocks launched from the trees, and then Ulrich was contending with Odd once again. This time, Odd alternated between throwing darts—blunted darts, but darts nonetheless—and the gloves on his hand. When Ulrich attacked with his swords, Odd used the metal bracers on his arms and legs to block.

Now that he was here, now that he had moments at the edge of seconds to think, Ulrich recognized it for what it was. As his blades sang through the air, he felt more at peace than he had in a long time. Months of fighting in Lyoko's simulated environment, of learning and using new reflexes, had left him with a taste for battle. Ulrich liked being useful, liked being pushed to his limits and beyond. After so long of having the world balancing on his shoulders, he couldn't easily go back to who he was before.

And this. This movement, this motion—it was exactly was he needed, even as Odd's knuckles scraped across his face hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to bruise.

As his sword clanged against Odd's arms, Ulrich remembered the first time they'd translated into the real world through Lyoko. How running, moving, everything felt so clear.

Lyoko didn't have pain, didn't having feeling. By combining his Lyoko abilities with the real world's emotions and sensations—Ulrich had never felt so empowered.

He felt like he could do anything.

Pushing past the exhaustion he felt, Ulrich ducked underneath Odd's overstretched punch, bringing up the hilt of his sword and slamming it into Odd's stomach, though he pulled the blow at the last second to not do any lasting damage. Odd started falling after having the air driven from his lungs; Ulrich pushed him so he landed on his back and then kneeled on his stomach, edge of his sword at Odd's throat.

For a moment, all either of them did was stare at each other while breathing heavily, Ulrich's sweat dripping down onto Odd's face.

And then Ulrich leaned down and crushed his lips to Odd's. He normally wasn't one for any sort of public display of affection, and, hell, sometimes private displays were something he had to work up to, but with his heart racing and fire, good fire, thrumming through his veins, Ulrich couldn't help himself. He tried to put into the kiss what he still couldn't put into words, all of his thanks and his gratitude, his affection and something that was perilously close to love, for doing this for him, for giving this peace of him to him.

When Ulrich broke it off, all he could focus on was the flush on Odd's face and the way his pupils were blown.

"Ulrich," Odd rasped.

"How?" whispered Ulrich. How did Odd know that this was what he needed? How did he know that this was the answer to the struggle that even Ulrich himself hadn't been entirely aware he'd been going through? "How?" Ulrich repeated, because it was the only thing he could say.

"You're not the only one feeling it," Odd replied. "I mean, yeah, not risking our lives every day sounds great in theory, but then you feel all restless and all. You haven't been sleeping well lately, and so I used to sneak out before curfew and punch some stuff, and one day Yumi caught me. She was feeling it too, and eventually we went sparring together. Your pencak silat's kind of scary, you know that? I mean, my old boxing skills were good but not as good as that, but then I started keeping distance with darts and rocks and eventually evened it out, and then Yumi brought some fans with her, and it was just our way of cooling off. But then you looked bad, and I realized that you felt the same way, so I set it up so that you could join us. And—"

Ulrich cut him off with a soft laugh, withdrawing his makeshift weapon and dropping it off to the side.

Yeah, that sounded like Odd. Odd and Yumi working that closely together, maybe not so much, but the delivery was pure Odd.

"Done, boys?" came Aelita's slightly amused voice as she dropped from a tree. That solved the mystery of who was fighting Yumi then.

"Could've done without the show," Yumi said dryly and then raised an eyebrow as Ulrich flushed bright red and launched himself off of Odd. Oh god, oh god, of god, what was he thinking doing that in front of everybody? He almost took up his swords again if only to ward off Aelita's grin.

"Yeah, yeah," Odd butted in, wringing out his arms. "Everyone's a comic now."

Yumi rolled her eyes and shoved Odd playfully. Odd did a fool's tumble before coming up with a bright grin, arms entwined behind his head.

"That good for tonight?" Aelita asked.

Ulrich suddenly started to feel the aches of high exertion, as adrenaline faded and his body remembered that he'd just put himself through the paces, as a trial by fire. But he felt sated, and when he moved, it was with none of his previous lethargy.

Looked like he was a bit of a battle junkie.

"I'm good," Ulrich said, to Odd's and Yumi's nods.

Odd groaned. "Crap, I still have to pick up all of my rocks and darts."

"It's your fault for choosing a running battle," Ulrich grumbled.

Yumi closed her fan and stowed it away as Odd started running around to gather his ammo. She nodded toward Ulrich's makeshift swords. "We got those for you. Are you going to keep them in your room?"

Knowing their source and knowing what they meant, Ulrich stifled his response of _yes_. Now that he thought about it, the swords weren't that conspicuous, and it wasn't like they were live steel. And if Ulrich spent more time with them, they would have a better balance, but they were pretty good as is, and there was really only one person who could've gotten and stored them without being suspicious about it...

"Yeah, I'll keep them," he said, smiling at Yumi. Even for the short time he had them, they were precious.

After Odd finally managed to grab all of his things and even then had left a trail of them all the way back to the dorm, he, Ulrich, and Aelita headed back to rest, while Yumi began her trek back to her house after a goodbye.

Ulrich elbowed Odd in the side as they walked. "What gives, Odd? You had me thinking you were controlled by XANA for a while there!"

Aelita whapped Odd upside the head at that, and Odd grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the abused appendage. "Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to have you on your toes, and it was easier than explaining."

"You left your earring off," Ulrich said softly in response. Odd couldn't wear it that often; the fang earring's dangling nature tended to interfere with anything requiring extreme movement, so Odd always replaced it with a small stud as necessary, but he'd gotten used to seeing it around, particularly when they were alone. Waking up and not seeing it on Odd, particularly when it wasn't that late, made something twist in his chest.

Odd seemed to understand. "Yeah, well, we just fought," he said, looking away. Ulrich noticed the way his cheeks suddenly flushed. He grinned.

Aelita let out a small coo as she said, "Oh, you two are so cute together," and earned herself a glare from both boys.

"We're not cute!" they shouted in unison, to Aelita's giggles. But then Ulrich noted the way she idly fingered some of the rocks she held in her pockets and remembered that Yumi had in no way managed to get Aelita out of the trees, which meant that she had some of the same accuracy here that she had back in Lyoko. At least they weren't energy fields, Ulrich thought, because that'd be just unfair.

Aelita split up with them on the way to their separate floors, as Odd gathered his small trail of rocks and they snuck back to their room. Aelita's almost negligent wave, Ulrich could've ignored, but the waggling eyebrows sent another flush across his face and down his neck.

Ulrich carefully stowed away his new swords out of sight, half his mind going over how he'd hide them during the next room inspection and the other half ignoring the fact that Odd was changing on the other side of the room. After finishing changing himself, Ulrich sat down on his bed and finally, for the first time since their Lyoko adventures ended, felt at peace.

He didn't know how restless he'd felt until he ended up drained but like he'd just scored the winning goal in a soccer match.

So when he curled up on his bed, watching as Odd did the same, he said quietly, "Thank you."

"I just did the same thing Yumi did for me," odd replied, but he didn't turn away from the wall.

It always made Odd uncomfortable when he did nice things without being able to cover it up by being a jokester. Ulrich hid a small grin as he said, "Thank you anyway."

Right before he closed his eyes, he heard a soft, "No problem," drift over.

Ulrich slept deeply for the rest of the night.


End file.
